Leah Anne at 17 months

Leah, within the last week, has really begun to chatter! I'm picking up on some very simple sentences, like "I want more milk." Of course it really sounds more like " I un mm moh mulk", but this is an exciting development. Grace and Leah are starting to have little conversations with each other, and Leah is beginning to follow Grace's lead when they play.

Leah is still cuddly and kissable, but there is a defiant streak starting to emerge in our formerly laid back little baby-- inevitable I suppose! Leah is very vocal when she does NOT want to do something. She also loves to run and really wants to walk up and down stairs all by herself. Leah also loves to sing and dance and has starting yelling for fun. She loves to yell "daddyyyyyyy!!!", which is cute most of the time. Steve is still her favorite person, and her excitement puts me to shame when Steve walks in the door at the end of the day.

Favorite things: bath time, calling Pop on the phone, Elmo, eating, the swing in the backyard, reading books, pointing to pictures while we name what or who's in them, and did I mention eating?

Leah is such an adorable, pleasant little girl. If we ever get a hold on the cable we need to get our video on the computer, I'll share some recent footage of Leah talking and Grace acting like she's 5!

Grace Olivia at 2 years going on 3

It's been a while since I've written updates on how the girls are growing and changing, so I thought I'd begin with the firstborn and talk a little about Grace Olivia.

Steve took this picture, and I love it. I wish it could have been my picture of the day for Saturday, but that's against the rules. This is a telling moment in time for Grace-- she really hates getting water on her face in the bath tub, so I have to cover her eyes with a towel while I rinse the shampoo out of her hair. Really, if I was to list her dislikes at this age, rinsing her hair would probably be #1.

Grace is now able to use the potty and get dressed all by herself (although it's best if we still keep a close eye on her). Sometimes she'll run into the bathroom and close the door before we can follow her in, and she'll tell us "I need my privacy!" Grace loves to wear her "wedding shoes" and "church shoes" and twirly skirts and sunglasses and paint her nails and carry her purse, but she doesn't like anything in her hair. I'm dying to put in braids and ponytails and clips but I guess I'll have to save that for the next daughter. Her favorite colors are pink and yellow. She is very articulate and her reasoning skills are developing by leaps and bounds-- it's really amazing to have a conversation with her sometimes! Grace constantly asks us "why", and we have many a long conversation about some random thing until we finally have to end it by saying "because that's how God made it, and I don't know why!!!".

Grace can do simple pre-school activities like matching, categorizing objects, connecting things by drawing lines between them, cutting with scissors, and drawing simple shapes. We're still working on writing actual letters.

Before bed, Grace always asks to sing three songs, in this order: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Jesus Loves Me, and To God Be The Glory. I'm not sure why she chose these three, but it's become a routine that's sweet. I think I'll teach her Amazing Grace next!

Grace continues to become more helpful and motherly with Leah and other younger kids. She is still very passionate which means that's she's prone to breakdowns if she's disappointed, but we also enjoy that part of her personality when she gets very excited and animated about things that make her happy.

She'll be three years old in two months and it'll be fun to update you again on what Grace is doing then!

Leah is next up...

Grace's First Easy-Bake Experience

Grace got an Easy-Bake oven for Christmas. To be honest, with an almost-three year old there isn't much "Easy" involved in any sort of baking-- but since you only have to add 2 teaspoons of water to the baking mix, I will give the EB oven a couple points for that.

Really, though, Grace was very excited and it was fun to make Steve a surprise for his birthday breakfast on December 30!

I gave Grace our entire collection of used birthday candles and sprinkles and let her decorate to her heart's content.

Here's crazy-hair/ pursed-lip (?) girl with the finished product!

Steve was overwhelmed!

Happy 28th birthday to our favorite guy!

Flower Girl

I'm slowly getting caught up with pictures from the month of December! What a busy month that was. Today's installment features Grace as flower girl for Mandy & Kelvin's wedding! These are some quick shots I took while we were getting her ready right before the ceremony.

Kip

She's new, she's cute, she's evened out the numbers in the Noll family quite nicely, and she's one reason we were excited to make the trek to Chattanooga, TN for Christmas! I didn't do a full-blown photo shoot and I didn't make her pose in just a diaper, but I did call dibs on holding her one afternoon and just happened to have my camera close by...

This picture of big cousin Leah with Kip just melts my mommy heart. Leah must have said "hi!" to Kip about 3,000 times.

Bye, Kip! We hope to see you and the rest of the fam soon. Give Aunt Heather a wave:

Project 365~ Heather Grace Photography

I've decided to commit to taking one photo a day for the next year! I'm posting each day's picture over on my photography blog, which can be found here. These pictures will be personal in nature~ a little snapshot of the day-to-day things and a chance to get creative with my camera. It'll be a challenge to keep it up, but I'm so excited to do it!

Catching Up

My cousin and her fiance are getting married on FRIDAY. Let's just say that 2010 will be getting off to a fabulous start:

Things are a little busy with the Deterdings...Grace and I are in the wedding, and we're catching up on all the little day to day things that were put on hold while we spent 6 days in Chattanooga visiting Steve's sister and her family. Leah is begging me to play with her and Grace is in the other room creating a Play-Doh masterpiece with Steve, so I have to stop at that and leave you with one teaser picture from our Christmas time... and I promise you that I can't wait to share what we've been up to: